Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Elize: Shadows of a Woman’ unfolds the events surrounding the shocking murder of Marcos Matsunaga. The killer is his wife, Elize, with whom he has one daughter. The story is primarily shown from Elize’s perspective, which gives us an insight into her troubled childhood and the struggles of her adulthood. Her love story with Marcos starts as a fairy tale, but it meets a brutal end, unraveling everything she had dreamed of in her life. The movie gives us a near-complete picture of the crime, but it doesn’t shed much light on what happened to Elize after that. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Elize Matsunaga Had a Turbulent Life
Elize Araújo was born in Chopinzinho, a small town near Paraná, Brazil. When she was three, her father abandoned the family. Little Elize was left in the care of her grandmother and aunt and didn’t return for a few years, with a new partner. Elize’s stepfather allegedly assaulted her from the age of 12 to 15, following which she ran away from home. Forced to come back because she had nowhere else to go, she resolved to change her life for the better. She got into nursing school, but despite graduating, she decided to switch careers and become a lawyer. She also had some experience in accounting, but things changed when she found a new source of income.
To pay for law school and her other expenses, Elize started working as a high-end escort on a website called MClass. She registered as Kelly and soon met Marcos Matsunaga. Their relationship evolved quickly, and a couple of years later, Marcos divorced his then-wife to marry Elize. But the marital bliss didn’t last more than a few years. While the couple had a child, Marcos’ infidelity soured the relationship. He had a mistress named Natalia, who was also an escort at MClass. While Elize thought about divorce, she loathed the idea of raising her daughter without her father, risking exposing her to the same childhood as herself.
Things got out of hand on the night of May 19, 2012. By now, Elize had tangible evidence to prove her husband’s dalliances. She claims she confronted him, and the conversation escalated into an argument where he allegedly slapped her. The argument ended with her shooting him in the head. Then, she dismembered his body, used three suitcases to transport the remains, which she disposed of in the woods about 20 miles outside the city. The cops caught up with her through her phone records and the CCTV footage from her apartment building, and she confessed.
Elize Matsunaga is Out of Prison Today
Elize Matsunaga was found guilty of murdering her husband and concealing the crime. In December 2016, she was sentenced to 19 years, 11 months, and one day in prison, which she was to serve out in Tremembé Women’s Penitentiary in São Paulo. It was reduced to 18 years and nine months, due to good behavior. During her time in prison, she took up vocational courses, like working with other inmates on a uniform manufacturing business. In 2019, she received another reduction in sentence. Her time was reduced by two years and six months to 16 years and three months on account of her confessing to the crime. Meanwhile, she also received temporary releases during the sentence for good behavior.
During her time in the semi-open prison, she worked as a seamstress. She received another piece of great news in 2022 when the court released her on parole. The conditions of her release prevented her from contacting her daughter, who is now with her husband’s family. She was expected to appear in court every three months; she couldn’t move away from her current district without authorization, and she had to get a job and stay away from establishments like bars and gambling dens. She could not change her residence without notifying the relevant authorities. In 2023, Elize worked as a driver for a ride-sharing app named TaxiMaxim in Franca, São Paulo. While she is said to have been working alright there and received good ratings, she had to leave the job after one week.
According to her lawyer, she received significant attention from the public and the media, and the exposure made it very difficult for her to do her job. Later, the cab company also confirmed that while the ex-convict had started working for them, there had been no recorded rides in her account for a long time. The same year, Elize faced another problem when an investigation was opened against her over a complaint alleging she had falsified her documents to show no criminal record in an attempt to land a job at a condominium. She refuted these claims, and though it’s unclear whether the accusations were dismissed, Elize remains a free woman.
Elize Matsunaga Hopes to Reunite With Her Daughter Someday
Since leaving her job as a cab driver, Elize has picked up several other vocations. For a while, she worked in the production and sale of pet clothing and accessories. Reportedly, she also dropped her husband’s name and began going by her maiden name, Araújo, to gain some anonymity. Over the years, several claims have come out about people taking a cab with Elize as the driver. One such claim went viral in 2025. However, her lawyer confirmed that she is not the woman being claimed as the driver. He also revealed that she is now working as a seamstress.
While she may have her freedom, Elize still hasn’t been able to see her daughter. On May 19, 2022, she revealed that she wrote an autobiography in prison. Titled ‘Picnic in Hell,’ she intends to give this handwritten book to her daughter someday and tell her side of the story. Because her in-laws have maintained a strict no-contact policy with her, Elize turned to an unconventional method. Reportedly, she would hold up signs with messages, with the hope that they would reach her daughter somehow. Meanwhile, the world has heard her story from different iterations.
In 2021, she gave her first in-depth interview in Netflix’s documentary, ‘Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime.’ She has also been the subject of the Prime Video series, ‘Tremembé,’ which also includes the stories of other famously convicted women with whom she shared a cell. Her biography, titled ‘Elize Matsunaga: The Woman Who Dismembered Her Husband’ by Ulisses Campbell, also came out in 2021. Now, the Netflix film is telling her story. As for Elize herself, she prefers to enjoy her privacy without media scrutiny and to stay away from the public spotlight.
Read More: Elize: Shadows of a Woman: Is VipClass a Real Escort Agency?
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